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Conservative party wins in Canada election
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-24 20:24
Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party won national elections Monday and
ended 13 years of Liberal rule, a victory expected to move Canada rightward on
social and economic issues and lead to improved ties with the United States.
The Conservatives' winning margin was too narrow to avoid ruling with a
minority government, a situation that will make it difficult to get legislation
through a divided House of Commons.
The triumph for the Conservatives came with many Canadians weary of the
broken promises and corruption scandals under the Liberal Party, making them
willing to give Harper a chance to govern despite concerns that some of his
social views are extreme.
"Tonight friends, our great country has voted for change, and Canadians have
asked our party to take the lead in delivering that change," Harper told some
2,000 cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters in Calgary.
Relations with the Bush administration will likely improve under Harper as
his ideology runs along the same lines of many U.S. Republicans.
Harper has said he would reconsider a U.S. missile defense scheme rejected by
the current Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin. He also said he
wanted to move beyond the Kyoto debate by establishing different environmental
controls, spend more on the Canadian military, expand its peacekeeping missions
in Afghanistan and Haiti and tighten security along the border with the United
States in an effort to prevent terrorists and guns from crossing the frontier.
With nearly all votes counted in the race for the 308-seat House, officials
results showed Conservatives with 123 seats; Liberals with 103; Bloc Quebecois
with 50, New Democratic Party with 28; and one seat to an Independent. Three
seats still haven't been determined.
Prime Minister Paul Martin conceded defeat and said he would step down as
head of the party, though remain in Parliament to represent the Montreal seat he
won again. It was an unusual move to do both on the same night, but Martin
appeared upbeat and eager to continue to fight the Conservatives from the
opposition benches of the House.
"I have just called Stephen Harper and I've offered him my congratulations,"
Martin told a subdued crowd at his headquarters in Montreal. "We differ on many
things, but we all share a believe in the potential and the progress of Canada."
The Conservative victory ended more than a decade of Liberal Party rule and
shifted the traditionally liberal country to the right on socio-economic issues
such as health care, taxation, abortion and gay marriage. Some Canadians have
expressed reservations about Harpers' views opposing abortion and gay marriage.
During the campaign, Harper pledged to cut the red tape in social welfare
programs, lower the national sales tax from 7 percent to 5 percent and grant
more autonomy and federal funding to Canada's 13 provinces and territories.
The Liberals have angered Washington in recent years, condemning the war in
Iraq, refusing to join the continental anti-ballistic missile plan and
criticizing President Bush for rejecting the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas
emissions and enacting punitive Canadian lumber tariffs.
Martin, 67, had trumpeted eight consecutive budget surpluses and sought to
paint Harper as a right-winger posing as a moderate to woo mainstream voters. He
claimed Harper supports the war in Iraq, which most Canadians oppose, and would
try to outlaw abortion and overturn gay marriage.
Harper denied those claims and said Sunday that Martin had failed to swing
voters against him.
"Canadians can disagree, but it takes a lot to get Canadians to intensely
hate something or hate somebody. And it usually involves hockey," Harper
quipped.
Voters cast ballots at 60,000 polling stations amid unseasonably mild winter
weather. Turnout from the country's 22.7 million registered voters was expected
to be better than the 60 percent of the June 2004 election, the lowest number
since 1898.
William Azaroff, 35, voted for the left-of-center New Democratic Party but
conceded a Conservative government was likely to win.
"I think it's a shame," said the business manager from Vancouver, British
Columbia. "I think the last government was actually quite effective for
Canadians. I think a Conservative government is just a backlash against certain
corruption and the sense of entitlement."
Martin's government and the House were dissolved in November after New
Democrats defected from the governing coalition to support the Conservatives in
a no-confidence vote amid a corruption scandal involving the misuse of funds for
a national unity program in Quebec.
An investigation absolved the prime minister of wrongdoing but accused senior
Liberals of taking kickbacks and misspending tens of millions of dollars in
public funds.
Just as campaigning hit full swing over the Christmas holidays, the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police announced they were investigating a possible leak by
Liberal government officials that appeared to have influenced the stock market.
When the 38th Parliament was dissolved, the Liberals had 133 seats, the
Conservatives had 98, the Quebec separatist party Bloc Quebecois had 53 and the
New Democrats had 18. There also were four Independents and two vacancies.
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